A Change of Fate
by firefly81
Summary: Stuck in an unfamiliar time period, Hermione catches the attention of an unexpected wizard.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

 _Written for Lynn_. :)

* * *

She had no idea what she was doing here. Here being both this ridiculous party and this time period. She cursed herself for ever touching that damned object. Her job at Gringotts required her to come in contact with cursed objects on a regular basis, but she had never miscalculated one so greatly. It had been placed on her desk so she had thought it was another assignment. Running all the standard detection spells over it, she found nothing out of the ordinary.

Nothing out of the ordinary until she touched it.

Then she was suddenly transported many years into the past. So many years into the past, in fact, that she didn't even recognized her deceased Headmaster at first. She had ended up at Hogwarts, even though she started out in her office at Gringotts.

She had fainted when he told her the year.

 _1920_.

When she came to, she had thought it was all just a bad dream. But it wasn't. It was a nightmare. The worst part was that there was no way for her to return, especially because of how far she travelled. When she questioned changing the past, he just twinkled at her, patted her shoulder, and told her everything happens for a reason.

That was _not_ what she wanted to hear.

She was lucky that he convinced the current Headmaster to take her in as she had no credentials, no money, no… anything. He was even able to pass her off as a cousin so she was now going by Hermione Dumbledore.

Not like _that_ wasn't weird or anything.

Her 'cousin' was the reason she was at this Yule masquerade party. Apparently Hogwarts was quite the party place in this time when all the students were gone. She was wearing the most beautiful (and uncomfortable) dress she had ever set her eyes on, with an ornate matching mask that was encrusted with diamonds. She enjoyed dancing, luckily, and hadn't once lacked for a partner (something that was very different from her time). She rather enjoyed the fact that no one in this time knew who she was.

Many wizards had asked her dance, and she had agreed, spending most of the party on the dance floor. As the night wound down, she grudgingly had to admit that she enjoyed herself. She thought she probably danced with all the wizards there and even some witches. It was the last dance of the night that she was approached by…

… _him_.

He was tall, at least 6'2", with broad shoulders. He cut an impressive figure in his very expensive looking dress robes. His curly blonde hair was pulled back, tied with a deep green velvet ribbon. He bowed before her, something she still wasn't completely used to, and held out his hand. When she places hers in his, he brought it up to his mouth and kissed it softly. Now this was something that had been done all night as it was apparently the custom at the time, but none felt quite like this.

It felt like sparks were shooting up her arm. She was so surprised that she almost yanked her hand away. Looking up into his clear blue eyes, she could see he was as surprised as she was.

"My lady. May I have this dance?"

Oh Merlin, even his voice was sexy. She couldn't find her voice, nodding her assent instead. He swept her up into a waltz, and she silently thanked her mother for forcing those dance lessons on her.

"I'm privileged to dance with the most beautiful witch here."

"How do you know I'm the most beautiful? My face is mostly covered by this mask."

"Oh, I've had my eye on you for a while now, Miss Dumbledore."

"Well, I find myself at a disadvantage that you are familiar with me, sir, but I don't know who you are."

"My name, Miss Dumbledore, is Gellert Grindelwald."

It was only pure luck that kept her from tripping over her feet and gasping out loud at his name. Of course she knew exactly who was holding her. Her mind whirled with what she knew about him.

Pureblood… magic is might… _murderer_.

She pulled away from him, murmuring excuses, and rushed away.

* * *

She wouldn't see him again until a couple of weeks later when she decided to make a trip to Hogsmeade. She was browsing the stacks at the bookstore, not paying any attention to her surroundings (Moody would have been disappointed in her), when she backed right into a solid object.

"Oh, please excuse me, I didn't see you there."

"That would be quite obvious, Miss Dumbledore."

She quickly backed up once she heard his voice.

"Mr. Grindelwald, how… lovely to see you again."

His laugh sent shivers down her spine, in a completely unexpected way. Instead of fear, it felt way more like desire.

"Forgive me if I do not believe the words that are falling from your exquisite lips."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"You know, you ran away from me before I could ask you if you would like to have dinner with me."

"Oh, well… umm. I don't think that's a good idea."

"And why ever not? Do you not find me interesting or attractive enough?"

Not attractive? No, that certainly wasn't the issue she thought to herself as she fought the blush that began to appear on her cheeks.

"My cousin, he's very protective. He would not approve."

"Of course he would."

"And just how do you know that?"

"Why, I asked him, of course. As he is the Head of your family, I had to acquire his permission before beginning to court you."

That was just one of the things she hated about this time. As if she required anyone's _permission_ to allow a man to court her. She would court whoever she damn well pleased and… wait.

" _Court_?"

"Yes, court. You are familiar with the concept, are you not?"

The bastard was laughing at her, she knew it.

"I have no intentions of allowing you to court me, Mr. Grindelwald, no matter what my cousin says. Now if you would excuse me, I have things to do," she said as she turned away from him. As she walked away from him, she heard him call after her, "Call me Gellert, love."

* * *

The first thing she did once she returned to the castle was go right to her cousin and demand to know what he was thinking. She didn't understand Albus' confusion over her outrage. She sat and listened as Albus explained that he and Gellert had been friends since they were boys, and he felt that since she had no way to get back, she should begin to move on. And apparently he wanted her to move on with Gellert, who didn't sound anything like what she knew of him.

Was it possible that what she knew was wrong? Was it possible that her shift through time somehow changed things?

* * *

If there was one thing she could say for certain that she knew about Gellert Grindelwald, it was that he was incredibly persistent. Every day she would get showered with gifts of rare books and intelligent notes. She had to admit that he quite impressed her with his knowledge on almost any subject, though she noticed he was strongest in Charms.

She fell for him, slowly. In fact, she didn't even realize that she had fallen in love with him until Albus quite bluntly pointed it out to her.

" _You're in love with him."_

" _I'm… what? Don't be absurd, Albus. I can barely stand the man."_

" _Oh? Is that why your face lights up like the lights at Christmas whenever you see his owl? Or why you look like someone killed your Kneazle when a rare day goes by that you don't hear from him?"_

" _I… don't know what you mean."_

" _Oh, I think you do, my dear. I think you do."_

That was how she ended up sitting at a desk in the library (thankfully devoid of students), pondering her next letter to him. Should she admit that her feeling towards him had changed? Or should she wait to see if he brought up the whole courting thing again? Or maybe she should –

"Miss Dumbledore?"

She shrieked and knocked over her bottle of ink as she whirled around to see Gellert standing behind her.

"Gellert! What are you… I thought I asked you to call me Hermione."

"So you did… Hermione."

Good gods, how was it possible that he could make even her name sound sexy?

"What are you doing here? You didn't mention you were coming for a visit."

"No, I wasn't planning on it until I got an interesting letter from your cousin. He suggested that you might be open to accepting my suit."

"He what?!"

"Never mind him, Hermione, he always did like to meddle. I just need to know, is it true? Will you allow me to court you properly?"

She looked at him closely, noticing that he looked somewhat unsure about her possible reaction.

"I… yes. Yes, I think I would like that very much."

His answering smirk nearly had her knees buckling under her. All thoughts quickly cleared her mind as he closed the distance between them and kissed her.

* * *

Years passed and she and Gellert eventually married. As he showed no signs of becoming the wizard that she had read about in her history books, she began to wonder what else could be changed.

Two years later, she convinced Gellert to take a trip to an orphanage with her.

They did not leave alone.

* * *

Thanks to Raybe for betaing.

Monthly Prompt List – February: 5. [pairing] Hermione/Grindelwald

Getting Around Challenge: Hermione/Grindelwald

To all my TBS readers: a new chapter will be coming out soon. My muse had up and left me, but she's come back to visit lately.


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